DeSantis Had an Absolutely Unprecedented Swing in Miami - Took Only 4 Years to Dominate
It wasn’t a very stressful night for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Shortly after the last of the state’s polls closed at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, The Associated Press called the gubernatorial race for the Republican incumbent. According to the AP, the race was called early because “DeSantis outperformed former Gov. Charlie Crist in a number of areas where Florida Democrats have typically outperformed Republicans.”
As of 10:10 p.m. ET, DeSantis was leading Crist by 59.4 percent to 39.9 percent with 89 percent reporting. That was even more of a beating than the RealClearPolitics polling average, which had DeSantis up by 12.2 points — not even close.
Four years ago, that wasn’t the case. Then, DeSantis barely beat Democrat Andrew Gillum, a far-left candidate, by only about 32,000 votes.
Nowhere could DeSantis’ landslide victory Tuesday be felt more acutely than in Miami-Dade County.
In Florida’s biggest metropolitan area, DeSantis was leading by 11 points over Crist as of 10:15 p.m., 55 percent to 44 percent.
Last time around, that was reversed — and then some.
As Politico’s election returns from 2018 note, Gillum won in Miami-Dade by 59.9 percent to 39.0 percent in 2018, which looks even worse when you consider the raw vote totals.
Gillum took home 478,958 votes compared with DeSantis’ haul of 311,581 — an astounding 167,377-vote margin for the Democrat last time around.
No wonder DeSantis publicly called out Miami-Dade County during his victory speech.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes stage in Tampa to give victory speech after winning re-election. He specifically thanked Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County voters for going red. And he gave a special shout-out to his wife Casey, who recently beat cancer. #ElectionDay @fox35orlando pic.twitter.com/8qxyaAGGFM
— Amy Kaufeldt FOX 35 (@Fox35Amy) November 9, 2022
Another county the governor thanked was Palm Beach, where he was up 51 percent to 48 percent margin. Four years ago, Gillum won there 58.1 percent to 41.1 percent.
The swing was huge, as Twitter users noted:
DeSantis is currently up 8 points in Miami-Dade County with 60% in.
In 2018, he lost it by 20 points. Unreal.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 9, 2022
DeSantis is up 8 points in *Miami-Dade* with 66% of the votes in. He lost by 20 points in the same county four years ago. RDS is an absolute juggernaut given his ability to win in deep-blue counties and solidify red ones. Crist heading for a beating.
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) November 9, 2022
DeSantis lost Miami-Dade by 20 points in 2018.
That’s a 25-30 point swing in 4 years.
Unprecedented.
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) November 9, 2022
The shift in Miami-Dade was enough to make MSNBC panelists gasp when they saw the returns coming in:
Audible gasps from the MSNBC panel when they first saw the early returns from Miami-Dade county pic.twitter.com/Qn1HbCEK7u
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) November 9, 2022
The New York Times’ Lazaro Gamio called this a major shift toward the GOP.
“The shift to the right has been dramatic among counties in Florida reporting nearly all their votes,” Gamio wrote. “Eight of those counties that voted for [President Joe] Biden in 2020 shifted 16 points to the right in the race for governor, and 12 points in the Senate race” between Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic candidate Val Demings.
So, what caused the swing?
Perhaps it’s the fact that, during the darkest days of pandemic closures, DeSantis said no to lockdowns and mask mandates. He was the anti-Fauci.
Perhaps it’s the fact that Florida doesn’t tax its residents to death or tolerate high crime and homelessness.
Or perhaps it’s the fact that, as DeSantis noted during his victory speech, “Florida is where woke goes to die,” giving its parents control over how their children are educated and stopping indoctrination cold:
“Florida is where woke goes to die.” pic.twitter.com/IMhp3lrucc
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) November 9, 2022
Perhaps it’s all of the above. Whatever the case, when election forecasters start doing the postmortem on the 2022 midterms, they’ll figure out the magic that made DeSantis the biggest winner on Tuesday — and why his supporters were chanting “two more years” during the victory speech.
Of course, DeSantis won a four-year term in the governor’s mansion. There’s another far more prominent office that’s up for grabs in another two years. Do the math.
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